The Good and the Beautiful Homeschool Curriculum
IN THIS POST YOU’LL FIND MY SECOND YEAR HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM REVIEW OF THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.
This is our second year to use The Good and the Beautiful Homeschool Curriculum. You can read my first year The Good and the Beautiful Homeschool Curriculum review here.
If you’re new to my blog, you can read the beginning of our homeschooling journey here. And if you’re new to my blog, here’s a little recap of our family before I jump into my thoughts on The Good and the Beautiful Homeschool Curriculum.
I am married to my college sweetheart and we have 7 little ones. We are currently in our 7th year of homeschooling and I am teaching grades: 6th, 4th, 3rd, 1st and Pre-K. The youngest two are 2 years old and 3 months old. I myself am a homeschool alumni and was homeschooled K-12th. Â
The beginning years of homeschooling we used Horizon Curriculum (for both phonics and math). It was wonderful for those beginning years! I loved being able to open up the workbooks without having to do any planning. I still use Horizon Math for the younger grades (it’s excellent). What I began noticing once they hit 3rd grade was that while the Horizon Curriculum was excellent for teaching basic phonics, we were lacking in writing. As I worked to piece together our curriculum for the year, I stumbled across The Good and the Beautiful curriculum online. I was overjoyed because it felt like the missing puzzle piece to our education. They incorporated reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, literature, geography and art all into ONE book. My mind was blown! I also loved that it is a faith-based (more on this below), high academic literature that has a strong emphasis on building character.Â
I thought I would answer a few questions I receive most frequently about The Good and the Beautiful Curriculum. Â
WHAT SUBJECTS DOES THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL COVER?
One of my FAVORITE parts about TGTB curriculum is that it combines many subjects into ONE book. You aren’t having to gather a bunch of different resources or curriculums. Instead of finding curriculum for each individual subject, they combined reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, literature, geography and art. The lessons are absolutely beautiful and I have been blown away by what my children are learning!
IS THIS CURRICULUM EXPENSIVE?
No! This is an incredibly affordable curriculum and quite a bit cheaper than most homeschooling curriculum. TGTB’s goal is to strengthen children and families, which is why they keep their profit-margin low. You can purchase the PDF for a small cost or purchase the curriculum printed and bound.Â
ARE YOU A MORMON? I THOUGHT THIS WAS MORMON CURRICULUM?Â
We are not Mormons. And this is NOT a Mormon Curriculum. The Good and the Beautiful was created and written by Jenny Phillips who is a Mormon. There is no Mormon influence in The Good and the Beautiful.Â
I am a Bible Believing Christian (Southern Baptist for reference) and DO use and love this curriculum. I thought I would give a little back story about finding this curriculum and why I chose to use it. Like I mentioned above, when I discovered TGTB I was overjoyed. It was exactly what I had been looking for and it felt like such an answer to prayer in our homeschooling journey. After ordering the curriculum I hopped on the internet and starting googling reviews on TGTB because I couldn’t wait to find other mamas who were loving and using it. I of course found mamas who raved about TGTB. But I also found several reviews from Christian mamas who said they were no longer using TGTB because the author was Mormon. Their concern was that the author might have put Mormon influences throughout the curriculum. After watching the videos I gathered their decisions were based purely off of personal choices and not because of something they found in the curriculum. You can read what I believe as a Bible Believing Christian here. After receiving the curriculum, looking through it thoroughly and praying about it… I knew that TGTB would be a wonderful fit for us. I have been vigilant about reading through every lesson to make sure it aligns with what we believe. And I can honestly say that after having used the curriculum for two years, I have yet to find anything that contradicts with what we believe as Christians. TGTB does a wonderful job of emphasizing high moral character and basic Biblical principles.Â
DOES THE CURRICULUM TEACH TO THE CURRENT GRADE?
I have found that the curriculum teaches UP in grade. I would highly suggest taking their assessment test that they offer on their website.Â
IS IT HARD TO LESSON PLAN?
Absolutely not! The Good and the Beautiful curriculum is designed to open and go! Â
IS IT HARD TO TEACH MULTIPLE GRADES WITH TGTB?
It is no more difficult than teaching multiple grades with any other curriculum. It took us a few weeks to get into a good rhythm and for me to figure out how long each child needed for certain things. My older kids are in 6th and 4th grade. The majority of the TGTB curriculum they can do on their own. I will help them with spelling tests, dictation and also working through things that are a bit trickier. First thing in the morning they will cover everything that they can work on independently. During this time I am able to work more one on one with my 1st and 3rd grader. I’ll be doing a separate blog post and Youtube video later on with what a normal homeschool day/schedule looks like for us. Â
DO YOU USE THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL FOR MATH?
We currently do not. I have looked it over and it looks excellent! Especially if you like hands on activities with your math. I knew we would be adding a new baby to our routine mid-year and decided to stick with what we had been using in years past. The younger two (1st and 3rd) are using Horizons Math. And my older two (4th and 6th) are using Saxon Math.Â
DO YOU USE THE SCIENCE AND HISTORY FROM THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL?
We do! I’ll be covering these in separate posts in the upcoming weeks. But in a nutshell, they’re FABULOUS! You can’t go wrong with any of them!
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I hope my Homeschool Curriculum Review of The Good and the Beautiful Curriculum answered most of your questions! If you’re looking for more Homeschooling encouragement, make sure to check out Home and Haven Homeschool Community. It’s an online resource that provides encouragement for homeschooling mamas. You can also find us over at @homeandhavencommunity on Instagram.
I have 4 kiddos, 6th, 4th, kinder and 3 years. We got our feet wet with TGTB last year and this year are switching over completely (besides math with my oldest)! I was concerned after reading reviews from other Christians about the possible Mormon influence. I personally haven’t noticed anything Mormon except that their drawings/paintings of churches do not have the cross on them. I love it so much and have felt a great deal more joy using TGTB in my homeschooling journey than I ever have! SOOO thankful for it!! An answer to my hearts cry for sure. Thanks for all your work here…so many helpful posts!
Super helpful! Thanks Ashley!